A toilet for an animal which can be disposed in a room is used in order to manage excrement of the animal that inhabits the room. As this type of toilet for an animal, a toilet for an animal that has a urine-absorbent mat which is water-absorbent and a liquid-permeable non-woven fabric configured to cover the upper surface of the urine-absorbent mat, which are disposed in a pan as an excretion receptacle has been proposed (reference is made to Patent Document 1).
However, in the toilet for an animal disclosed in Patent Document 1, the animal performs excretion by directly mounting onto the non-woven fabric. Consequently, the feet of the animal may be wetted as a result of the animal standing in the excrement stain or as a result of the feet of the animal making contact with the urine that disperses on the upper surface of the non-woven fabric after excretion. When the feet are wetted, the floor surface in the room becomes contaminated as a result of the animal moving in the room after excretion. As a result, there is a strong demand for an animal toilet that inhibits wetting of the animal feet during excretion.
A system toilet for an animal has been proposed in which the problem of wetting of the feet of the animal is improved by filling the excretion receptacle with a moisture-absorbent material, such as cat sand, that absorbs excrement and providing a lattice-shaped base frame with a suitable space on an upper section of the moisture-absorbent material (reference is made to Patent Document 2).
However, the base frame of the system toilet for an animal proposed in Patent Document 2 is not liquid absorbing, and therefore the feet of the animal continue to be wetted by the small amount of urine that is attached to the base frame. Consequently, there is a need to further enhance the moisture-absorbent and liquid-permeable characteristics of the surface with which the feet of the animal make contact in the system toilet for an animal.
The system toilet for an animal such as that proposed by Patent Document 2 disposes a lattice-shaped base frame on the upper section of the excretion receptacle that contains the moisture-absorbent material. Consequently, the position at which excretion is performed by the animal is elevated by a predetermined height from the floor surface on which the system toilet for an animal is disposed. When the kept animal is a cat, that is to say, when the system toilet for an animal is applied to a cat, since the cat does not tend to discriminate in relation to a difference in the height between the excretion position and the floor surface, there is no problem when the excretion position (height of the system toilet for an animal) is elevated.
However, when the system toilet for an animal is applied to a dog, the dog is sensitive to the difference in the height between the floor surface and the excretion position. Consequently, when the height of the excretion position in the system toilet for an animal is elevated, there is the problem the dog is resistant to excreting in the system toilet for an animal.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2002-142599
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2003-235389